I tried an experiment in a worship class I was teaching a couple years ago. It was used as an ice breaker at a Leadership Forum I had attended. I instructed our class to break into groups of two and handed them a piece of paper that contained sixty symbols like this.

I instructed the class that they had seven minutes to complete as many games as possible and we would tally the scores at the end. That is the only instructions I had given them. I said “Go” and people started playing.  At the end of seven minutes I asked if there were any winners, how many games they were able to play and most importantly how many teams actually played TIC TAC TOE…what?

The majority of the teams did play TIC TAC TOE even though I did not say in the instructions that they had to. Two people did however make up their own game and they played and laughed. Their point of the game was to enjoy their time and see if they could make a new game. My point in this ice breaker exercise was this…

Why do we assume we have to play TIC TAC TOE when we are given a sheet of paper as I described. Why not make up your own game, why do we automatically want to compete against each other… why not use our own uniqueness and creativity…why not take that sheet of paper and make a statement!

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

That “pattern of the world” that Paul is talking about is like that sheet of paper.  The world wants us to play TIC TAC TOE like everyone else. “Fit in… conform… don’t Stand out…this is in now…come on it’s easier…be like everyone else!” This even happens in the church…”we’ve always played tic tac toe…we’ve always played this way…that’s what we are supposed to do…why are we changing tic tac toe… isn’t anything sacred anymore?”
Being the same as everyone can have disastrous consequences but also is just plain boring…yawn!

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.  (Romans 12:4-6)

Paul encourages us in the next portion of this passage to be the part of the body we are called to be. It would be disastrous if the parts of our physical body started to all function the same way! You are already going there so I won’t need to! Each part functions together to fulfill its purpose and to keep the whole body healthy.  Each person’s gifts are to be used for the benefit of the whole body and each other. We are called to be part of the body to keep the church body healthy. Take the sheet of paper that God has given you and turn it in to a unique God given and designed work of art!

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10)

“It’s not going to be easy to listen to God’s call.  Your insecurity, your self doubt, and your great need for affirmation make you lose trust in your inner voice.  But you know God speaks to you through your inner voice and you will find peace and joy only if you follow it” Henri Nouwen -The Inner Voice of Love

Allow God to work His masterpiece in you. Don’t just conform to the pattern of the world and don’t try to be something you were not designed or gifted for. Don’t just play TIC TAC TOE….

READY SET PLAY!

Blessings….Ric Rozsa

I just pulled this from someone’s actual blog….someone actually said this and has put it out there for people to read and for some impressionable people to buy in to… (these are not my words)

…”Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, was in the hospital this week. He got the sap from a firestick plant in his eyes, and could not see. He tweeted that he was in excruciating pain and asked his followers to pray that his “sight loss is restored.”Later he tweeted that he is not blind and asked that God use the pain for His glory.
In the Bible book of Leviticus it says that a blind man is inferior and can’t approach the altar, and there are several Bible stories where false prophets are smitten with blindness by God.Was the author of “The Purpose Driven Life” afflicted with (temporary) blindness for bearing false testimony? Or was it just a random, purposeless pain-in-the-eye event like what happens to everyone from time to time?”

There seems to be an epidemic of this “calling out false teachers” and “name that heretic” contests lately. I am really saddened by it and I know I will be criticized for saying that I think it is the wrong thing to do right now. If there is ever a time the world needs to see Jesus own words put in to action…it is now.

John 13:34 “…”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

verse 35 in the NLT says”…Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

I was told one time from a friend to “get thicker skin” if I am to be able to stay in the ministry…I know he meant that for good reasons and my own protection and mainstay…but I believe I am in the ministry because I have “thin skin”…I want to feel…I want to relate…I want to empathize with people I minister with…I want to love.

“…Well you know Ric…we need to call out these people for who they are…heretics and false teachers…we need to expose them…” As if we can do a better job at this than God can…and will do..and I believe He will! All I am concerned about is while we argue the what, how and why with each other…more and more people are missing out of the Good News of Jesus…and yes I believe are going to hell.

When I read the Gospels I see that there were the “call-er out-ers” then too. The Pharicees constantly tried to paint Jesus as a lunatic, demonic, false teacher and liar. Why?…because their view of God and the Law had become dogmatic, pragmatic, empty and had hardened their hearts. They had separated themselves from the world not to draw attention to God but themselves. They went even further by calling the people Jesus seemed to connect with…”sinners and unclean”. Jesus in one of His many “discussions” with the “religious” said…

“When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:16-17

Friends I am just concerned that we seemed to be allowing Satan  to create an “enemies among us” fever while He continues to count his potential souls day by day. We are off arguing and accusing each other and meanwhile no one is in the ER doing “triage” . I may be way off and my theology will more than likely be called in to question. I just hope this is speaking to someone or someone can relate to what I am feeling…I want to continue to ponder this and write again about it…

Paul’s words pierce my “thin skin”…

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

in Him

Ric